French General's Wife

This year in June, my mother had a significant birthday....you know the ones that end with a zero...
and I decided that it was time to finish the French General's Wife that had been started three years ago....this being the year of the finish and all.

Well, I spent February and March appliquéing the scallop border down......I am such a slow hand sewer...

Then in April, I went to get out what were supposed to be eight completed pieced checkerboards, only to find I had done 5 out the 8 required...the tricks the mind plays....so in April the checkerboards were sewn together....lots of sewing....

...and more sewing, and finally finished piecing the whole quilt top together...I still love that French General range - Rural Jardin...so pretty :) I made this from a Jelly Roll, and other French General pieces I had, as well as black and bones I had in the stash. It has ended up fairly close to the pattern, with the exception of the hearts I appliquéd instead of circles...pretty happy with how they turned out.

By this time it was the beginning of May and I  realised, that with a month left to quilt the top in, working 4 days a week and going away for one of those weekends. I wasn't going to get the quilting done...so I decided to give Mum the quilt top for Mother's Day....and I would quilt it and enter the completed item in Territory Quilts 2014 in October, which is being held in Alice Springs this year. Everyone was happy with this....especially me!!

But guess what I had also done three years ago....I had cut out enough strips to make another one in completely different colours...maybe I could call this the French General's Mistress!!

Just for fun

The other day, after having a little day surgery done (removal of a mole from behind my ear) my mum decided I needed cheering up with a little colour, and bought me a couple of colourful fat quarters...

Nothing like a bit of yellow and orange to cheer oneself up...particularly paired with a spot and a bit of text....

So where are we going with this? Back in this post,  I mentioned that the kit for the "Sunburst" Quilt (Making Quilts ...promise of joy by Kathy Doughty), may be in my cupboard. I have been a bit scared of the all those pointy points and circular circles, so I busted out the templates from the kit and decided to have a go.

The block has come together surprisingly easy, and my points seem to be pointy!

The centre was a bit fiddly, but I am confident I can master it with better pinning, sewing the large circle into the floral background was very straight forward because it is a larger circle...

So maybe I should start on the kit!!! Sixteen blocks....it's a bit of a commitment! I might think about it for a bit more :)

Soul Searching - Yellow

Seven blocks down...two to go...brown and purple...it doesn't surprise me that the brown block is among the last to be done!

The yellow block was fun to do...I do love yellow...it's such a happy sunny colour...

Funnily enough, I don't have a lot of this colour in my stash...probably because I keep on using it...might have to "restash" :)

And seeing I know what the final layout will be I just had to sew together a row....it looks pretty good...I could start a new thing in outdoor patchwork banners! Except I wouldn't recommend hanging them off party lights!

Off to make the mess with brown and purple fabrics now!

Soul Searching - Blues

What a mess I made making these blocks....but fun working with blues! The paler blues are mainly scraps...

Quite pretty...but a bit on the light side!

These darker blues have a bit more drama about them....

This block had me pulling lots of fabrics from the stash...I was surprised how many darker blues I had...helped out by Kaffe Fassett and Keiko Goke fabrics!

In my earlier posts on the Making Quilts - the promise of joy by Kathy Doughty I neglected to say where the book could be found...the book is available at Quilt Mania and at Material Obsession....happy sewing :)

Soul Searching - Pink and Orange

Here we go, as promised from the post last week...I have been playing with my pink and orange scraps this week, and making good progress with these blocks.....I am really getting the hang of this project now.

The deep pink of this block is probably a really good reflection of the quilts I make, and how I love this strong shade of pink....I had no problem in finding scraps to make up this block.

The  important thing to note about this photo is my fantastic new turf that has been down for nearly 8 weeks and is looking lovely and luscious!

Some of these pinks are so hot they are almost red!

Turning down the volume slightly to my orange block, the sun had started to go down when I took these shots, so the colours aren't sparkling like the pink block...but you get the idea....

Using the variety of lights has been a very interesting exercise...I had very few light scraps...don't know why that is...so I pulled all the lights from the stash, and have been cutting and cutting...

The orange block is quite fun, I didn't have that many orange scraps either so had to raid the stash cupboard again....made a monster mess!

Have put what's left of the light and orange fabrics back in the cupboard..so now off to play with my blue scraps and make a brand new mess :)

Not another new project!

Yep! Just as the UFO pile has just started to whisper "Finish me" instead of shouting "FINISH ME" I had the dreaded inspiration wave come over me, and before you could say "two and half inch strip" fabric had exploded out my scrap box, and stash cupboard, and away we went again....riding the wave...it all started with this book...

Making Quilts....the promise of joy by Kathy Doughty of Material Obsession....I have been waiting awhile for this to come out, and I love it....so many great ideas....21 patterns...so lots to drool over....and you really just want to start making a quilt straight away after reading it!

So that's what I did....and I started on Soul Searching....such a great pattern for an instant sewing fix....I got to tidy up my scraps and touch lots of my stash, and basically make a huge mess...but it made me happy :)

The idea with this pattern is to learn about contrast and tone, and not to focus so much on perfectly matching everything....so I really had to let go with the light strips and mix up the whites, creams and beiges....that was a bit of struggle for me....but overall the focus on tone has worked well :)

As an aside I thought I would share this other pattern Sunburst....

Beautiful use if Denyse Schmidt's Greenhill fabrics.....I may have the kit for this plus the templates!! Repeat after me....one thing at a time!

So all up....love this book....love that there is 21 patterns, something for everyone, the instructions are easy to follow, and as the book is printed by QuiltMania, the text is in French and English, but they have managed this in a clever way, by using the blue boxes for the english so you don't have to spend time trying to work out where the english bit on the page is...go buy it...you won't regret it!

Off to go and play with my pink scraps!

Just an impulse purchase!

After last weeks colour explosion using my Prints Charming scrap fabrics, I was craving using some more colour.

In December, I had the opportunity to visit the Material Obsession shop in Sydney, and under the guise of "Mummy's Santa gift", this kit found it's way into my suitcase, the quilt is about 84" square. Look at all the applique....what was I thinking!!

Anyway, not to be deterred, I decided to start with the most manageable part of the quilt, which is of course the nine patches....

So many yummy fabrics, I am going to have a lot of fun putting this quilt together.....luving these Tammis owls with the Kaffe spot....

Kaffe roman glass and Brandon Mably....

Going mad with a Brandon Mably pairing....

Kaffe Millefiore, and Brandon again...

Amy Butler, and is that Dena Designs stripe?

Amy Butler and a classic white and black spot...

I had fun pairing these up, and I thought you would enjoy the eye candy! Now I just have to decide on how to do the applique...I am thinking that machine raw edge applique might be the most achievable for me ;)